Preset or change brightnessLevel without turning device on

Posted on
Sun May 22, 2016 10:56 am
srkinard offline
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Joined: Apr 10, 2016
Location: Austin, Texas

Preset or change brightnessLevel without turning device on

From my reading, the brightnessLevel parameter is available as read only. What I want to achieve is this- at certain times of the day or night I want to preset the levels for a light to be, but I don't want to have the light come on when the setting is changed.

At midnight (or when I go to bed) I set the brightness on the 2 lights in the master bathroom to 5%. This works, but I'd like for it work a little different.

This change to 5% is simple, but depending on the current state of the lights in there it can be annoying. If the lights are already on they just dim and there's nothing very jarring about it. If they are off and the room is dark, then it is very noticeable for the lights to come on to 5% and then require being turned off.

The same thing applies at sunrise. By this point enough light is coming through the window that 5% is pointless, so I would normally set them to at least 40%. Now this is where putting the preset in place is the key. If I get up and walk in there at 8am and hit the switch, they are still set at 5% and it is pointless. But setting them higher in advance means there will be a "flare up" from the command to set the level, then toggle back off.

If there isn't currently a way to preset this now, it would be great if Matt and Jay could build it into future releases (if the actual hardware protocols allow it.)

I just want to be able to change the level a light will come on to without actually having to turn it on...like altering its memory of what the last value was.

Thanks
Ross

Posted on
Sun May 22, 2016 11:05 am
Colorado4Wheeler offline
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Re: Preset or change brightnessLevel without turning device

I'm not sure if understand 100% of what you are trying to accomplish that Indigo cannot already, but I'm focusing on the last bit of your question:

srkinard wrote:
I just want to be able to change the level a light will come on to without actually having to turn it on...like altering its memory of what the last value was.


I wrote a plugin that does this, but I'm not sure if it is exactly what you want to do. What Scene Toggle does is remember what the devices were at before you toggle the scene on, then return them to that value when you turn it off. Additionally Scene Toggle will also let you define what levels that "on" state should be.

So, in theory (and to the best of my understanding of your issue), you could either run a schedule or action group or you could set the switch to fire Scene Toggle manually that would let you set the lights to the desired level and when you turn it off have it return to the previous state. For example: the lights are at 5% but you want to turn them on brighter for a few moments, you hit your switch and it triggers "Scene Bedroom" that turns the lights on to 100% (or whatever) and when you turn that switch off it returns to the 5% they were at before.

Again, I apologize if I am way off base but you might check it out to see if it's worth a look - the info page and download link are HERE

My Modest Contributions to Indigo:

HomeKit Bridge | Device Extensions | Security Manager | LCD Creator | Room-O-Matic | Smart Dimmer | Scene Toggle | Powermiser | Homebridge Buddy

Check Them Out Here

Posted on
Sun May 22, 2016 11:10 am
srkinard offline
Posts: 320
Joined: Apr 10, 2016
Location: Austin, Texas

Re: Preset or change brightnessLevel without turning device

Colorado4Wheeler wrote:
the info page and download link are HERE


Oddly when I click the link there or the link in your signature I get:

You do not have the required permissions to read topics within this forum.

So I can't read up and try your suggestion to see if it will do what I want...

Posted on
Sun May 22, 2016 11:16 am
Different Computers offline
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Re: Preset or change brightnessLevel without turning device

Is the trouble that you're trying to turn on lights from hard switches, but want the dim value to vary?

Because otherwise, I don't know why this isn't achievable by a set of triggers with "Set Brightness" levels customized by time conditions.

Trigger: Whatever device you want going on
Condition: after midnight, before x time
Action: Brighten to 5%

and

Trigger:Same
Condition: before midnight, after x time
Action Brighten to 40%

This should work fine, though I usually do this based on my house mode or on the luminance value outside.

SmartThings refugee, so happy to be on Indigo. Monterey on a base M1 Mini w/Harmony Hub, Hue, DomoPad, Dynamic URL, Device Extensions, HomeKitLink, Grafana, Plex, uniFAP, Fantastic Weather, Nanoleaf, LED Simple Effects, Bond Home, Camect.

Posted on
Sun May 22, 2016 11:17 am
Colorado4Wheeler offline
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Location: Colorado

Re: Preset or change brightnessLevel without turning device

Odd, the URL is: viewtopic.php?f=194&t=16118 and the file URL is https://www.indigodomo.com/library/376/. If those don't work try searching the forum for "Scene Toggle", there's a post from a couple of days ago called "New Plugin: Scene Toggle".

My Modest Contributions to Indigo:

HomeKit Bridge | Device Extensions | Security Manager | LCD Creator | Room-O-Matic | Smart Dimmer | Scene Toggle | Powermiser | Homebridge Buddy

Check Them Out Here

Posted on
Sun May 22, 2016 11:28 am
autolog offline
Posts: 3988
Joined: Sep 10, 2013
Location: West Sussex, UK [GMT aka UTC]

Re: Preset or change brightnessLevel without turning device

Colorado4Wheeler wrote:
Odd, the URL is: viewtopic.php?f=194&t=16118 and the file URL is https://www.indigodomo.com/library/376/. If those don't work try searching the forum for "Scene Toggle", there's a post from a couple of days ago called "New Plugin: Scene Toggle".

Looks like Jay hasn't set the permissions on forum correctly, but I could be wrong :wink:
I can't view the forum either. All your sub-forums are being flagged up as You do not have the required permissions to read topics within this forum. :?

So I guess you can read and write to them but nobody else can! :)

Posted on
Sun May 22, 2016 11:30 am
srkinard offline
Posts: 320
Joined: Apr 10, 2016
Location: Austin, Texas

Re: Preset or change brightnessLevel without turning device

Colorado4Wheeler wrote:
Odd, the URL is: viewtopic.php?f=194&t=16118 and the file URL is https://www.indigodomo.com/library/376/. If those don't work try searching the forum for "Scene Toggle", there's a post from a couple of days ago called "New Plugin: Scene Toggle".


1st link gave me the attached screenshot. The 2nd link does let me view the info and download the file, so I'll install it and see what I can make it do.
Attachments
Screen Shot 2016-05-22 at 12.26.37 PM.png
Screen Shot 2016-05-22 at 12.26.37 PM.png (19.45 KiB) Viewed 3775 times

Posted on
Sun May 22, 2016 12:00 pm
srkinard offline
Posts: 320
Joined: Apr 10, 2016
Location: Austin, Texas

Re: Preset or change brightnessLevel without turning device

Different Computers wrote:
Is the trouble that you're trying to turn on lights from hard switches, but want the dim value to vary?

Because otherwise, I don't know why this isn't achievable by a set of triggers with "Set Brightness" levels customized by time conditions.

Trigger: Whatever device you want going on
Condition: after midnight, before x time
Action: Brighten to 5%

and

Trigger:Same
Condition: before midnight, after x time
Action Brighten to 40%

This should work fine, though I usually do this based on my house mode or on the luminance value outside.


Yeah...I was hoping to do it like this to minimize what runs and when:

One variable: MasterDimLevel

One action (SetLightsMasterDim) that basically sets certain lights to the MasterDimLevel...not switching them on, just sets the level so if you hit the switch it comes on to that preset level.

Schedules at-

- Midnight (set MasterDimLevel to 5% - Run action SetLightsMasterDim)
- 6am (set MasterDimLevel to 40% - Run action SetLightsMasterDim)
- 30 minutes after Sunrise (set MasterDimLevel to 60% - Run action SetLightsMasterDim)
- Sunset (set MasterDimLevel to 40% - Run action SetLightsMasterDim)
- 10pm (set MasterDimLevel to 20% - Run action SetLightsMasterDim)

Was hoping to avoid making triggers for every switch, but may have to do just that. Guess I could make variables for the "hour blocks" and use those in the triggers, so any changes to the times would be made in the variables and not in every trigger for every switch.

I bought the DomoPad Android Client (Ultimate Version) by RogueProeliator last night for my Galaxy Tab 2 to test out...looking at buying a few cheap ($33) Android 4.4 tablets on Amazon that can run this client and control pages designed for each room I put one in...plan to wall-mount the tablets.

Posted on
Sun May 22, 2016 12:39 pm
Different Computers offline
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Joined: Jan 02, 2016
Location: East Coast

Re: Preset or change brightnessLevel without turning device

I'm doing something like this automatically, via that Luminance value I mentioned.

Difference is that I'm using other logic to catch the case where everyone has gone to bed, so if someone's up raise the lights just a bit.

You might want to look at viewtopic.php?f=4&t=16099
for some ideas.

SmartThings refugee, so happy to be on Indigo. Monterey on a base M1 Mini w/Harmony Hub, Hue, DomoPad, Dynamic URL, Device Extensions, HomeKitLink, Grafana, Plex, uniFAP, Fantastic Weather, Nanoleaf, LED Simple Effects, Bond Home, Camect.

Posted on
Sun May 22, 2016 2:51 pm
FlyingDiver offline
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Joined: Jun 07, 2014
Location: Southwest Florida, USA

Re: Preset or change brightnessLevel without turning device

srkinard wrote:
Yeah...I was hoping to do it like this to minimize what runs and when:

One variable: MasterDimLevel

One action (SetLightsMasterDim) that basically sets certain lights to the MasterDimLevel...not switching them on, just sets the level so if you hit the switch it comes on to that preset level.



What kind of light dimmers are you using, and do you know if they'll accept a setLevel type command WITHOUT turning themselves on? Because if the dimmer won't do it at all, then this is a moot discussion.

joe (aka FlyingDiver)
my plugins: http://forums.indigodomo.com/viewforum.php?f=177

Posted on
Sun May 22, 2016 3:11 pm
srkinard offline
Posts: 320
Joined: Apr 10, 2016
Location: Austin, Texas

Re: Preset or change brightnessLevel without turning device

FlyingDiver wrote:
What kind of light dimmers are you using, and do you know if they'll accept a setLevel type command WITHOUT turning themselves on? Because if the dimmer won't do it at all, then this is a moot discussion.


Some are GE/Jasco 45606, some are Leviton VRI06-1LX, some are Leviton RZP03-1LW modules.

Not sure if they support a command like that or not. I'm not familiar with the intricacies of the Z-Wave protocols and which ones to look for.

Posted on
Mon May 23, 2016 11:05 am
jay (support) offline
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Location: Austin, Texas

Re: Preset or change brightnessLevel without turning device

Sorry about the permission issue (phpbb apparently had a nervous breakdown), they should be fixed now.

So, to add some clarity to the discussion, let's get a few terms straight. First, a device's brightnessLevel refers to the device's current state - that is, if you look at a dimmable device, the light will be at that brightness level. Changing brightnessLevel means actually setting the brightness/dim level. This is not what you want.

What you're looking to do is set the default brightness of a dimmable device, which is basically a configuration parameter and doesn't effect the device's current state. Most dimmable Insteon devices allow you to set the default "on" level such that when you turn on a device (either by command or by manually operating the switch) the brightnessLevel will be set to that value.

Unfortunately, Z-Wave devices don't seem to follow this pattern. Rather, what most do is return to the last brightnessLevel the device was at when it was turned off. So, it remembers the last setting and that's what it goes to. I don't know of any Z-Wave switches that work like the Insteon switches - where you can explicitly set the default ON brightness. I guess the thinking is that you can just press and hold a switch to have it ramp up and release at the brightness you want if you want it to be different when manually controlled.

Jay (Indigo Support)
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